Richard & Robert D’Amore

Please visit this Instagram link while I continue to the fine art website: https://www.instagram.com/damorefineart/

Just a few Magazines from their first publications in the prestigious Zoom Magazine. (click on cover to see the features)

Tragedy Strikes Twice Thirteen Years Later

OCTOBER 24TH, 2019

It is with a heavy but grateful heart to inform you all that my father Robert D'Amore's house, that burned down on October 24th, 2019. While there were fires burning in California, just a few miles across the  border into Mexico,  even more fires were burning fueled by the Santa Ana winds and  miles of dry brush. The fires were being spread simultaneously north and south and in multiple areas from Tijuana to Ensenada. There wasn't enough man power or resources or water to fight back hard enough. My Father lost everything including 50 years of negatives (three quarters of it never printed, never seen), his cameras, his darkroom, and hundreds of fine art prints in addition to precious family photographs and heirlooms. Late Thursday night when I heard there was fire in his area in La Mission,  I called to warn him to evacuate multiple times which saved his life. It was only a matter of a couple hours before flames engulfed his house and set off propane tank explosions and car explosions that destroyed everything. He was lucky to escape with his dog Sally and save some of his life’s work in photographs- 8 boxes of 16x20 prints and most of his Fresson prints. He tried to save as much as he could but if he said if did one more trip inside the house, he said would not have made it out alive. I am beyond grateful that he is alive.  

He built his house 2o years or so ago by himself with one other guy for $5k which would not be possible today.  It was never fully finished but as soon as the roof was up, he moved in and it has been his home workshop and haven ever since. I am so proud of the body of work that he dedicated his life to creating and I’m sad for the immense loss of 50 plus years of photographs and stories that I was on my way to archiving over the Thanksgiving holiday. Not just his stories were lost, but of so many people and cities and countries, Europe, America, and Mexico. He had been documenting La Mision for 30 years. Every cowboy covered in dust proudly posed for my Father.  He created work that demanded respect. He captured and created with a sensitive, romantic touch and a curious eye. I will do my best to continue showing the work that remains in honor of him and my late Uncle Richard D’Amore. We are the family D’Amore, of love, and are thankful to you for reading this tragic story and are humbled and grateful for support during this time.

My father spent his life housing records and artwork, so what the fire destroyed was more meaningful to him, me, our friends and family, the community, the art world than any other object inside. It’s incredible the weight and significance a simple piece of paper can carry and how fragile that is. He is 76 and in pretty good shape for a diabetic with neuropathy who survived a serious carotid artery surgery a few years ago. He wants to rebuild his house. We are figuring out if the walls still have integrity and how much rebuilding will cost. If we can't rebuild, then maybe we can use the funds raised from the Go Fund Me to buy a mobile home. My father is a proud man and he is frugal, but he is also generous. He has a huge heart. One of the first things he said to me was how sad he was for his neighbors and neighborhood and that he was so touched by how kind people have been to him. Someone bought him lunch the other day and he just couldn’t stop talking about that. 

He is going to live a different kind of life now without carrying the weight of the past on his shoulders. He said he felt a sense of freedom he has never experienced before. He has spent so long in the shadows surviving and I want him to be able to enjoy more of his life in the light.  He said today that “ a life is a life, a house is a house, and there are alot of people suffering in the world right now.”  He feels deeply for the people in is town.